Sunday, April 1, 2012

Ultraman 21: Break Through The Smoke

a school boy comes across a field of dead pigeons. there's an extinct volcano that's started to smoke, and the stuff is poisonous. naturally, the Science Patrol is called in to investigate. Fuji practically demands the job, and Hoshino sneaks along in the Mini-VTOL.

naturally there's a monster in the crater, and it's Kemlar. Hoshino and Fuju are overcome by its noxious emissions (didn't they think that investigating a field where birds are dead that it might be wise to wear some gas masks?) and the rest of the Patrol goes to the rescue.

so when Kemlar makes it's appearance, the first thining the boys do is blast it with their ray guns. this has the effect of greatly annoying the beast, so it climbs right out of the crater and is on it's way to destroying the Mini-VTOL.

this is a great shot. Mura talks the revived Hoshino through the take off in a very well done suspenseful sequence. Kemlar shows another of it's weapons right as the ship takes off.

it has a weakness, and it's not Ultraman's specium ray. I feel sorry for Kemlar, and it is shown crawling back into it's crater. hopefully it went back to wherever it was from and recovered, learning a sad lesson about the outer world.

an optical fogger was used throughout this episode, making it very murky. it's well done overall. some really cool effects and shots are present as well. Kemlar's mouth lights up right before it uses it's breath weapon, something that Godzilla and Gamera would copy in later years.